year-old register identifying the parentage of purebred horses, known as the Stud Book, provided a useful launch pad for research that may soon move on to studying the remains of early champions. "We now have the tools in terms of genetic markers and genetic maps," said Professor Matthew Binns of London's Royal Veterinary College. "Now there are collections of bones of many of these ancient thoroughbreds that will enable us to get handles on some of these key animals." But given that genes are believed to account for just one third of a horse's performance, science can only achieve so much according to Cunningham. Producing genetic duplicates of former winners, for example, would stray beyond horse-racing's stringent rules and into the realms of science fiction. "If you cloned Northern Dancer and put him out to race, he might end up just being an also-ran," Cunningham said of the Canadian-bred Kentucky Derby winner considered to be one of the greatest studs of the 20th century.
